Lannan Foundation

Seamus Heaney's poetry bears witness to Ireland's complex, violent past and present, articulating the conflicts and tender mercies inherent in human experience. Born into a Catholic farming family in Northern Ireland in 1939, he has been a resident of the Irish Republic since 1972. Since 1981 he has spent part of each year teaching at Harvard University, where he served as the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory from 1984 to 1998, and is now the Ralph Waldo Emerson Poet in Residence. Heaney, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, uses all aspects of Irish culture, history, folklore, song, myth, and religion to write poetry that not only describes the Irish experience to the reader, but also allows the reader to feel the experience and emotions of the Irish people. He received a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1990.

Seamus Heaney Bio and Cross Links

Dennis O'Driscoll, one of Ireland's most widely published and respected critics of poetry, was born in County Tipperary, Ireland. A civil servant since the age of 16, he works for Irish Customs in Dublin. He has published six collections of poetry, the most recent being Exemplary Damages. He has contributed to the Times Literary Supplement, Poetry, and the Harvard Review. O'Driscoll, who received a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1999, was a featured author for Readings & Conversations in 2001 and 2003.

Dennis O'Driscoll Bio and Cross Links